A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh on September 30 cleared all charged, including senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pioneer LK Advani, in the 1992 Babri Masjid destruction case and said there was no criminal conspiracy.
CBI judge SK Yadav said in his judgment that there was insufficient proof to demonstrate that the destruction was pre-arranged.
Other than Advani, other senior BJP pioneers Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, previous Uttar Pradesh boss priest Kalyan Singh, Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Rithambara were additionally among the denounced.
On September 16, the appointed authority had guided each of the 32 accused to stay present in the court for the judgment. In any case, six of them were excluded from being available face to face - including Bharti and Kalyan Singh who are in emergency clinic due to COVID-19 - and joined by means of video meeting.
The 16th century Babri Masjid was wrecked in December 1992 by "kar sevaks" who asserted that the mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh was based on the site of an old Ram sanctuary.
The Supreme Court had set August 31 as the deadline time for the CBI court to convey the decision in the issue. This was later stretched out by a month.
The central agency produced 351 witnesses and 600 documents as evidence before the court. Charges were framed against 48 people, but 17 have died during the course of trial. The trial under the serious criminal conspiracy charges commenced against them after having been dropped by the trial court in 2001.
The verdict was maintained by the Allahabad High Court in 2010, yet the top court ordered restoration of the connivance charge against them in April 2017. The apex court had additionally requested every day hearing in the high-profile case and guided the special judge to conclude it in two years.
The charges against the accused were promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, having made assertions "prejudicial to national integration and injuring or defiling a place of worship", indulging in "deliberate and malicious" acts intended to outrage religious feelings, uttering statements leading to public mischief, rioting and unlawful assembly.
The CBI had argued that the accused conspired and instigated 'kar sevaks' to demolish the mosque.
In any case, the blamed had argued innocence keeping up that there is no proof to demonstrate their blame and asserted they were embroiled by the then Congress government at the Center as a political vendetta.